Oh My God I Need Some Help - I'm Thinking About Upgrading My Computer To A PC But, Through A Combination Of Computer Illiteracy And The Fact I've Been Bashing Away On An Atari ST For The Past Few Year, I Haven't The Foggiest What To Do, What To Get and What To Expect. Can ANYONE Help Me????? PUUHLEEEEEEZE!?!?!?!?!!!! (Part 2) By James Judge @~Continued from last issue -OK, YOU'VE SUCCEEDED IN MAKING MY HEAD HURT NOW. WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO WORRY ABOUT? The next thing is drives. With an ST you only had to worry about one drive - a 720K floppy. Now you're in PC land you've got three to worry about - a 1.44meg floppy, the HDD (hard disk drive) and CD-ROM. -OH JOY. The floppy drive is standard - you can't (really) go wrong with it. The HDD is also pretty easy to worry about. -YOU'RE LYING, I CAN FEEL IT IN MY WATERS... Oh OK, there are a couple of _small_ concerns. The first rule when getting an HDD is to get the biggest model possible. 700megs is the minimum you should go for now. The only problems with HDDs over 520megs in size is that you need special HDD controllers. With smaller drives you could get away with the in-built IDE interface which would happily control a couple of 520meg HDDs. The problem is that it can't access info over 520megs in size. So, to get at info above this mark you need to use one of two interfaces - either a SCSI (pronounced Skuzi) or E-IDE. The SCSI interface is the more costly option and involves a lot more bother installing it etc. But it can control far larger drives and more drives than the E-IDE can at the moment. The good thing with E-IDE, though, is that it's cheep, easy to install and can also control CD-ROMs far quicker than SCSI CD-ROMs. So, unless you know that you will not be using a lot of large drives go for the E-IDE interface. If you are, though, maybe a SCSI interface would be better. Once you've got your interface you can get the largest drive possible for your wallet. HDDs are really cheap these days so you'll always be able to get more at a low price as the years go on. Also disk reliability is top-notch now, so you won't be having any major accidents with 'em. Also one drive maker isn't all that different to another, just don't opt for a 'J.Bloggs&SonInc' drive from the dodgy dealer in the market. -RIGHT, WHAT ABOUT CD-ROMS? Here you've got an easy choice to make - either a double speed or quad speed CD-ROM. There are other speed drives (such as single, triple and 6.6speed) but these two are the main options these days. These, too, are also pretty damned cheap. Depending on the make of drive interface you have got in your PC (either IDE, E-IDE or SCSI) you'll be able to get a CD-ROM which can be controlled by any of those three. If you want to save some room, though, you may be able to get interfaces on the soundcard you'll be buying. My CD-ROM, for example, is a Creative-Labs labelled Panasonic drive. I've got a SoundBlaster16 soundcard and on that is a Panasonic CD-ROM driver, so instead of using up another expansion slot to get a dedicated driver card or, if I had an IDE CD-ROM, one of my IDE slots I can kill two birds with one stone. There's no speed difference and I had no problems installing the two - even though I bought one and was given the other. A Quad speed drive would be a sensible option if the wallet allows it. The only things that you have to worry about the drive (if you're buying it with an integrated package) are these: Average seek time How quickly it transfers data What mechanism is used to insert the CD The AST should be as low as possible and the data transfer rate should be as high as possible. The mechanism used to insert the CD is one of two possible options - either using a motorised tray or a CD caddy. The former is the choice of someone who doesn't use the drive that often and wants to look flash. They are fine and good as you just press a button, out slides the tray and you can then pop the CD in. The only trouble with this is that the tray could get snapped off (those prying kiddies' hands... or drunken adult ones... ) and means the whole drive has to be replaced and the tray doesn't afford the CD much protection. The caddy, on the other hand, is a more fiddly option. Here you've got a box of plastic which you have to take out of the drive (as you would with a cassette tape), open it up, plop a CD into it, close it and then put the whole shebang into the drive. This is fiddly and quite a few people feel that it is out-dated, cumbersome and slow. The good thing, though, is that the caddy gives the CD itself a lot more protection in the drive, and so what if the caddy smashes? Another œ5 and you've got yourself a couple more. Also there's nothing stopping you from getting numerous caddies to house your most used CDs. All of the up-to-date CDs will support the important Book specs. If you're unsure as to what all of these mean look at 'CD-ROM - Information Overkill' from SynTax a few issues ago. All the specs are in here. -NOW CAN I GO AND GET MY COMPUTER, PRETTY PLEASE? Nope, sit still - we've nearly got all the important stuff out of the way. There's just two more things to cover before we can look at the more 'flash' accessories that you still need but have a wide choice of. -OK, WHAT ARE THESE TWO MIGHTILY IMPORTANT COMPONENTS? First off is the monitor. You want an SVGA model that is at least 14" in diameter. The bigger the monitor the better - 15" is better and 17" is great (21" is an expensive dream...). The bigger the screen the more you'll be able to get on it and, normally, the higher the resolution it'll be able to handle. You also need a non-interlaced model (reduces flickering and, so, eyestrain) with (preferably) automatic degaussing (without it your screen will look 'dirty' when faced with pure white screens). Also it needs to be at the most 0.27pitch but, preferably, lower (the lower the pitch the sharper the screen image) and it should be able to display screens of around 1028*768*256 at around 65Mhz or above. Also for ease of use see whether you can get a digital model and ensure that the monitor will be mounted on a swivel-stand (in two planes - left and right as well as up and down) for easy positioning and reduction in RSI etc. -AND THE SECOND THING? The second thing is the box into which the motherboard will fit. You've got four choices here - slimline, desktop, mini-tower and tower. The difference between all of the different types is size and, because of this, the number of free drive bays you'll have. It may seem OK to have just one free bay (ie a free slot in the case where you can put disk drives) now, but when you add that extra HDD, another CD-ROM (to be flash) and a tape-backup unit you'll soon find that bays are at a premium. So, yet again, get the biggest you possibly can. Desktop is the common one and the one which you'll see in most offices. It's a large box, basically, with about four drive bays - one for the floppy, one for the HDD and two free - a 5.25" one (for CD-ROMs and tape backup devices) and a 3.5" (for another HDD or floppy). One of these 3.5" nays may be internal - ie you can't see it from the outside. This is OK for HDDs, but not much use if you want to put in an extra floppy... The Slimline model is for the idiots among us. Here you'll be lucky to get one free drive bay and the amount of expansion cards you'll be able to use will be severely limited - get at your own peril. The mini-tower is a good option. Here you've got a unit that has a smaller footprint than your desktop, but it's about as high as your monitor (so needs to be stood beside it instead of putting the monitor on the case to save space). You'll get plenty more drive bays and access to the innards of the computer will be easier for some part of the casing. The tower is the ultimate case. Here you'll have a box that has the same footprint as that of the mini-tower, but it will be far taller - often necessitating it to be stood on the floor. Although you loose a degree of portability with this megalith you have a huge number of drive bays. One thing, though, if you are limited in space on the desktop and need to stand it on the floor will you enjoy bending down every time you want to pop a disk into the floppy or CD-ROM? -AND THAT IS IT, IS IT? _NOW_ CAN I GET THE $&^"œ~# MACHINE? Oh no, there's still plenty to go. Are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I'll begin... Now you've got the CPU and monitor sorted you need a graphics card to get any form of graphic from the two boxes. There are a number of types of card on the market with the most popular being the Diamond Stealth. The only trouble is that often with pre-bought packages you won't be told the manufacturer of the card. That doesn't matter as there are no compatibility problems. All you need is a good card that will shift those pixels around with attitude. It goes without saying that you need a card capable of supporting SVGA in a number of resolutions... A good way to measure the speed of the card is how much memory the card has got itself. The minimum you should go for is 1meg of on-card memory. This'll give you a nice piccy at a pretty good speed. Go for 2megs if you want top-notch graphics moving around at a really cool speed - useful if you're into graphic intensive applications such as fractals and ray tracing, as well as some of the more demanding games on the market. 1meg is absolutely fine and, with most cards, you should be able to add another megabyte to beef the card up. After graphics comes sound... -OH GOODY! There is sound capabilities in all PCs, but as they were originally designed for office use it is only a small 3.5watt internal speaker that, when it gets going, sounds like a Spectrum game loading. It isn't good at all. Instead to get any form of recognisable sound from the box you'll need a soundcard. With soundcards there is only one specification you need to fill to get maximum compatibility and that is if the card is a Sound Blaster. Creative Labs (the makers of SBs) are the best in the business and, so, everyone has decided to adopt them as the industry standard. It also means that a Creative Labs card will produce sound with anything and everything. The problems arise when you get a non-Creative Labs Sound Blaster, or a clone. On the packaging the clone will state that it is 100% SB compatible, but this is often untrue - there's nothing more SB compatible than an SB is what I say. Always opt for a Creative Labs SB card - you'll get really good sound and no problems when installing software on your machine. CLabs produce four main types of card and these are: Sound Blaster Sound Blaster Pro Sound Blaster 16 Sound Blaster AWE32 The standard SB version is an 8bit card which doesn't give stereo sound and is, really, pretty damned naff. You'll get sound from everything but for the audiophiles amongst us more power is needed. The SB Pro is either an 8bit or 16bit model. The later models are 16bit and they provide OK stereo sound. This is a good card for starting off, but if you're into producing music or like crisp sonics in games then you'll be better off with another card. The SB16 is gradually becoming the entry level card. It offers better quality stereo sound (up to and above that of CDs) and can record sound at far higher levels than the previous two cards. Go for it if you can. The AWE32 is a dream card - 3D surround sound, wave tables (ie far better sound than the FM generated sounds of previous cards) - it truly is the ultimate in sound cards. All of the cards (apart from the 8bit versions) also have CD-ROM interfaces on them to run Panasonic CD-ROMs and the SB16 and AWE32 have a few others (for Sony, Mitsubishi and IDE models). So, again, it's another case of get what you can afford. Remember that it'll be a long time before you'll have to upgrade a soundcard, so a little more expenditure at the start will give your ears something to really love you about in the long run. -HUBBA, HUBBA, THOSE SB CARDS SOUND REALLY GOOD. YOU MEAN I JUST PLUG ONE IN AND IT PLAYS ALL KINDA MUSIC? Yes, almost. You do need some speakers to go with them, though. All the cards will have standard 3.5mm jacks to connect up to speakers at the back, so you'll easily be able to get some speakers to fit them - or you could even connect it up to the hi-fi if you've got the correct splitter leads. For those of you who don't know much about things hi-fi a rule of thumb is that the output of speakers is measured in watts. Your standard CD/radio/cassette player ghetto-blaster type affair has an output of 30watts when cranked right up. This is more than loud enough for computer use (unless you plan to use the CD-ROM as a CD player and want to really rock the house) so measure your need accordingly. Check whether the speakers have their own power source (as is needed for the larger models), volume, bass and (maybe) treble control. You may also get a few added knobs such as bass booster, but only get what you really want - don't be fogged by salesmen saying you need 250watt quadraphonic speakers with bass booster, tweeters and woofers to start a zoo etc. etc. if all you want is a couple of pings in Windows. Remember, though, that the speakers will easily outlast the PC so the more you spend now, the less you will have to in the future. Oh, and check whether the speakers are shielded if you intend to put them anywhere near your monitor. Speakers give off a magnetic field which can disrupt monitors and TVs. If the speakers aren't shielded then they'll start doing funny things to your screen - so check that out. -HEY - WHAT ABOUT THINGS LIKE KEYBOARDS AND MICE? I MAY BE DIM, BUT I'M NOT DENSE... Yep, there's three more pieces of hardware you'll need for the complete PC unit - a keyboard, a mouse and a joystick. You can't really go wrong with any of these - just ensure that the keyboard is a standard 102 key keyboard (Cherry keyboards are, in my opinion, the best around), the mouse has a long lead, a large ball and can be easily cleaned (the Microsoft mice are the best around) and your joystick a a standard analogue affair with trim and two fire buttons. -AND THAT IS IT. I CAN NOW GO AND GET MY PC? Almost. Before you buy make sure what software you'll be getting - you'll need an operating system (either MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 or Windows 95) and an integrated package (such as Microsoft Works or Office) to get you started. Check that you'll be given all the original disks, manuals and certificates of registration too, so if anything goes wrong you don't have to worry. Check that you'll also be getting plenty of manuals - basic computer and monitor manuals are essential, but check you'll be getting manuals for the motherboard, soundcard etc. - if you're not ask why and decide whether you really need them. Finally... -AT LAST!!!! Finally think about warranties. Three or four years is a good length for cover as anything that will go bang is likely to go bang in the second or third year (according to statistics). Check that you won't have to pay any extra for parts or labour and check just what the warranty covers and what type of warranty it is. Most include parts and labour with one year home repair and subsequent years back to base (ie where you bought it from). So, with all that under your belt you should be slighter more confident in purchasing a computer... -YEP, THANKS FOR THAT. JUST ONE LAST QUESTION - WHAT EXACTLY IS A COMPUTER? Oh shut up! For a couple of more technical pointers have a look at Alex Van Kaam's article in Issue 39 - he makes a couple of really good points that I haven't covered. -OKAY-DOKEY MATEY-BLOKEY. SEE YAH!! Yeah, good riddance! - o -